Have fun on Halloween and be sure to save the best of the costumes, jack-o-lanterns, decorations, collection bags, and even special candy wrappers for your collection of holiday decorations. Christmas collectibles are the most popular followed by Halloween, then Easter, then the Fourth of July. Here are a few Halloween-inspired bits of news.

Coffin Makeovers

Coffin Couches is a new line of furniture made by a Los Angeles company. The owner, who runs an autopsy service, buys unused, damaged coffins, removes their lids and adds legs, arms, and upholstery. Another company is selling hexagonal coffins with added shelves that stand on end to create a bookshelf. A third company makes a casket pool table. Many of these pieces are made so they can be converted back into coffins when their owners' needs change. We hear these casket makeovers add life to the party when guests are told the couch is going to be the owner's final resting place.

Photo: Coffin Couches/Coffincouches.com

Skull for Sale

In September a human skull was offered on Craigslist with an asking price of $300. Still unsold.

Photo: Replica human skull/HowDonow.info 

Another Skull Story

Years ago, before cigarettes were acknowledged to be dangerous, we appraised an estate that included a human skull. The top of the head came off and the owner used it as an ashtray. How prophetic. We valued it at zero dollars because at the time it was not legal to sell human body parts.

Papier-Mache Mummy

In the 1950s we were in an antiques shop and the owner told us the 70-year-old coffin he was selling held a mummified body. It turned out to be an old Halloween figure made of papier-mache.

Dr. Death's Collection

Jack Kevorkian's estate is being auctioned Oct 28 at the New York Institute of Technology in New York City. Hutter Auction Galleries is handling the auction. Many of the items up for sale were used in Kevorkian's physician-assisted suicides. A giclee print of his painting titled "Coma," picturing the feet of a patient, is valued at $500 to $1,000. Many letters he wrote from prison are included. The "star item" is his Thanatron, the machine that helped with the suicides. It's valued at $100,000 to $200,000.

Photo: Hutter Auction Galleries